Christopher Schroeder

Category: community and culture

  • Of Course They Do And

    Of Course They Do And

    The new movie Girls Like Girls, which is widely recommended, seems as confused as its characters are supposed to be.

    Teenage Coley (Maya da Costa), who has relocated from San Diego after her mother’s death to her estranged father’s rural Oregon home, is befriended by Sonya (Myra Molloy). Their friendship soon becomes romantic and then is abruptly ended when Sonya leaves for summer dance camp, and both confront their feelings and fears, and renew their relationship, after Sonya returns.

    Director Haley Kiyoko, who co-authored the screenplay with Stefanie Scott and Chloe Okuno, explains in introductory remarks that this movie originated as a song (2015) and later became a novel (2023). She also adds for those who are unfamiliar with these previous versions that it’s an account of being seen, and addresses the need for more queer stories.

    GIRLS as a movie is successful enough. The cinematography is evocatively languid, and elicits high school summer experience. Also, Da Costa is credible even as she stops short of exploring some emotions, which seems as much a directing and writing problem.

    One problem however is its relevance. Lesbian love has a long history at least in the West (e.g., Sappho’s 630-570 BCE love poems). Moreover, more than 6 in 10 Americans today still believe that gay or lesbian relationships are morally acceptable, and most LGBTQ Americans today report feeling socially supported.

    A bigger problem is that the story seems as confused as some of its characters. The movie is considered a romantic coming-of-age story, but its plot suggests something more complicated that to its detriment is never examined.

    One obvious possibility is the challenge Coley’s and Sonya’s relationship to heterosexual expectations as expressed by Sonya’s sometime boyfriend Trenton (Levon Hawke). Another perhaps less so arises in the awkward exchanges between Coley and her estranged father Curtis (Zach Braff), which seem less about Coley’s sexual identity than their family history, and which reappear in the mostly off-camera interactions between Sonya and her mother and sister.

    These and other possibilities offer opportunities to offer something more than saccharinely superficial sentiments about lesbian love, and explain why this story from someone whose fans consider “lesbian Jesus” seems more like an after-school special. This condition seems confirmed by my discovery after the move that the adapted song was offered as a YA novel.

    This movie also struggles with what I consider the icult of the individual, but that is part of a larger cultural immediacy complaint, and not specific to this movie, which still seems more suitable for smaller screens, such as a music video, and not a big one as a feature film.

  • So Long Sun-Times

    So Long Sun-Times

    I’ve discontinued my Chicago Sun-Times subscription, and am disappointed about doing so.

    The final factor was its required “Premium Edition” fee, which for those who had this fee waived is in fact a price increase. These editions are generally useless cash-grabs, and sometimes filled with AI hallucinations. Moreover, this fee is still not required by its cross-town competitor.

    I had switched my daily delivery subscription to the Sun-Times after it was acquired by Chicago Public Media. Since then, I’ve observed a reduction in its quality, such as fewer op-eds and less unique content, that only increases its contrast with its hedge-fund-owned rival.

    I’ve also asked for clarification of inconsistent and inaccurate price-increase processes, missed delivery promises, and subscriber-supporter differences, which are often unclear or even ignored. These issues become even more confusing given that the print newspaper is freely available in .pdf on its website.

    These observations and others, such as the increased content overlap between the Sun-Times and WBEZ or increased sponsor spots on the radio after the predictable federal funding loss, have initiated a seeming commercialized convergence, and produced a cross-platform credibility problem. The limited responses to my often ignored queries from a long-time donor have been less than reassuring.

    I realize that these conditions are part of larger concerns, such as a widespread performative progressivism. Regardless, I think these challenge the primary public media purpose, and its promise of facts and reason for its communities.

    I wonder in other words whether Chicago Public Media is the innovative institution that it describes itself as, and that I’ve long imagined it to be.

    I know that it will continue despite decreases in my modest financial support. I just hope that its leaders can restore my confidence in it as a crucial contributor to an informed Chicago and a functional American democracy.

    Such beliefs are perhaps more important now when hope for our future is harder to find.

  • For All

    For All

    I was intrigued by a recent biographical account of John Mark Comer, who for some is the current “personal-spirituality guy” with a large social media following.

    The article offers background about Comer, contextualizes his efforts, and shares professional and personal experiences. In doing so, it seems to be introducing Comer, and explaining his approach and influence, to those who readers who like I hadn’t heard of him.

    One of Comer’s central belief is that technology is negatively affecting its users’ spirituality. In contrast, he advocates for an approach that he calls “spiritual archaeology,” or excavating Christian practices from its history, and argues for organizing adherents’ lives around their founder’s habits, which he identifies as scripture, service, the Sabbath, solitude, fasting, prayer, witnessing, generosity, and community.

    Comer’s appeal, which seems too progressive to conservatives and too conservative to progressives, has been criticized as too narrowly focused. Nonetheless, it appeals to the author of this account, who reports her realization in conversation with Comer that she — late twenties, college-educated, city-living — is his target demographic and confesses her struggle like Comer’s has with these recommendations.

    I wonder whether such practices might increasingly appeal to others, and know that Christianity isn’t the only justification for these. I believe that these practices could appeal to anyone who prefers less revelation and more reason regardless of their religious persuasion if any at all.

    I wonder whether this author is offering her experience as an assessment although it would fall short of anything reliable (n = 1). I wish she would have envisioned a larger audience for her account.

    Others (Doucleff 2026, e.g.) attest to the need for a more values-driving life and offer such practices along with research studies and other reasons as responses to technology-dominated lives. An additional advantage would be reducing the allure of spiritual or moral superiority, which could be more compassionate and more appealing.

    Christians in other words aren’t the only ones who use digital technologies and suffer from spiritual malaise. All of us could benefit from greater community and more solitude, and even from studying canonical texts for example and serving others more.

    Surely any informed account of the foundational Christian figure would approve.